Tolkien’s friend fled from the Nazis as a schoolboy
ERIC STANLEY was the last of a dying breed, the gentleman scholar who personified the classic image of a benign, absent-minded professor, but who was possessed of a razor-sharp intellect.
As a lecturer and then professor of old english, eric was beloved by colleagues and students alike because he personified a bygone age, when slower clocks struck happier hours. Indeed, he was a dead ringer for mr Chips, the boarding school master played by robert Donat in the 1939 film Goodbye, mr Chips, who was as devoted to his pupils as they were to him.
eric was my supervisor at oxford in the mid-eighties and we remained dear friends until the day he died. Always elegantly dressed, he was a man of impeccable taste who stood out because he was utterly unconcerned with the issues that preoccupy so many of today’s academics — ambition, promotion and the size of their pension.
his absolute focus was his students, encouraging them to believe that their ideas had the capacity to change the world.
many who came under his guidance, first at Birmingham, later at Queen mary College, London, then during his two years at yale, and throughout his tenure at Pembroke College, oxford, thrived on such academic nurturing and remained close to him.
In 1977, he was appointed rawlinson & Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon — following in the footsteps of his great friend, Jrr tolkien, author of the Lord of the rings.
eric forged friendships wherever he went because his intelligence was not just academic, but deeply intuitive. he knew what makes human beings tick, and in that, too, he was an uncommon man. he was among the most quintessentially ‘British’ people I have ever met, brilliant but modest, bold but reserved, personally stoic but endlessly compassionate towards others.
his achievement as a teacher of english was all the more remarkable because he began his life speaking another language.
Born in Germany in 1923, at the age of 11 he and his family fled Nazi persecution to Britain — a subject he was always reluctant to discuss.
he excelled at Queen elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn and then studied at University College, oxford, before embarking on an academic career.
his refugee experience gave him a deep and abiding appreciation for the liberties the British take for granted. he loved his adopted country and was always grateful for the opportunities it gave him. he became a devout Anglican and a lifelong parishioner at St Giles Church in oxford.
In his wife, mary, a neurologist, he met the love of his life. they had one daughter, Ann (a forensic psychiatrist who sadly died last year after a long illness) and two grandchildren and their 50-year marriage was an outstandingly happy one, ended only by her death in 2016. they shared a love of Italy, its landscape, wine and art — he amassed one of the finest private collections of renaissance prints — and drove there every year on holiday.
After mary’s death, though in his early 90s, eric carried on the tradition. It typified his enduring passion for life, and his determination that adventure always trumped practical concerns.
his death, at the age of 94, has broken an irreplaceable link with the past and its values, as the flags flying at half-mast over Pembroke College acknowledged.
Eric Gerald Stanley, born October 19, 1923, died June 21, 2018, aged 94.